I was lucky enough to get in an hour today late afternoon at the Cicero Community Park near Midway. It's a small park, but there was enough room to fly a full sail rev on 120s, with variable wind out of the southeast. I think some of the kids playing in the park enjoyed watching for a few minutes, and I got to play with some of the pedestrians. It's an OK location, not great because it's pretty small and there are small trees and lamposts, etc. that you'd expect in a city park. But it is near Midway, and that worked for me since I had about 2.5 hours to kill. Plus with wind out of the southeast, it was relatively unobstructed for a city location.

Hope some of you are getting out to fly as well. No more for me until Friday at the earliest . . . and maybe not until Sunday.

Flew new build at Turner Park in Roselle. Went home, made changes. Flew again, more changes. Repeat. Will test and take pictures tomorrow and post results. Same frame as a rev 1.5, and nearly twice the sail area. This one will fly if anyone near it is breathing.

MARK

"...it's a fair wind blowin' warm, out of the south over my shoulder, guess I'll set a course and go." CSN&Y

Mike wrote:Since we've been talking about Roks, I made an EIU themed one and put it up today while I flew my Rev.

makatakam wrote:Flew new build at Turner Park in Roselle. Went home, made changes. Flew again, more changes. Repeat. Will test and take pictures tomorrow and post results. Same frame as a rev 1.5, and nearly twice the sail area. This one will fly if anyone near it is breathing.

Shari and I went out last night and flew for a couple hours. started on mid vents, Then to standard. By dusk the wind had died to 2-3 mph. I took out the Zen I borrowed from Jynx ( thanks Jynx) and flew it for 45 min or so. I firmly believe the zen is not all hype. It is not a 1.5 and everything is in slow motion. But side by side with the 1.5 I was flying with no effort. Its name fits, Slow graceful and quite a different experience. I really liked it. It doesn't slide for nothing, but it seems to do everything else just fine. It was just strange having the sail load up and float around the sky with out any movement on my part. When I would go back to the 1.5 I could fly it but it took alot more work. The zen kinda reminds me of an Indoor rev. has the same feel. And it requires keeping tension on all four lines to keep it responsive. Now I just need to come up with the money to take it off Jynx's hands.

I will have it Davenport. That is when I am scheduled to return the kite. If the wind is right I am sure she would let you try it.And unfortunately I have other financial responsibilities. Maybe one day I will be independantly wealthy. Then I will need a larger car to carry my kites. Good to dream. I really need a second mid vent first.

Darkspark wrote:I will have it Davenport. That is when I am scheduled to return the kite. If the wind is right I am sure she would let you try it.And unfortunately I have other financial responsibilities. Maybe one day I will be independantly wealthy. Then I will need a larger car to carry my kites. Good to dream. I really need a second mid vent first.

I'll see you in Davenport. I'd love to compare the Zen to the ultralights I've built.

And as promised, here's a pic of my new build -- to be officially debuted in Davenport.

IMG_0922.JPG (88.29 KiB) Viewed 2905 times

MARK

"...it's a fair wind blowin' warm, out of the south over my shoulder, guess I'll set a course and go." CSN&Y

I spent most of the time just making adjustments, so I didn't really put through its paces. From the small amount of time I actually "flew" it, I would say it does pretty much everything a full sail rev can. Reverse-didn't try, tried some slides-ok, bicycle spins-ok, upright hover-ok, inverted hover-twitchy, axles-ok, flic flacs-didn't try. I don't think it will flic flac with that much sail.

If you're going to be in Davenport tomorrow, you can try it yourself.

MARK

"...it's a fair wind blowin' warm, out of the south over my shoulder, guess I'll set a course and go." CSN&Y

I tried it as well. I only tried it on 40 foot lines. I think it would have been interesting to try on longer lines to see how it behaves with a bigger window.

Like many of Mark's kites, it's a lightweight - and I mean that in a good way. It was in the air at the end of the day when nothing else would fly. I had a pretty good time with it, although I did not have much luck with inverted flight, and it really wanted to sideslip on me. I think of it like a SUL BlastI

Mark said he was going to tune the bridle to help with inverted and reverse flight. I think the sail shape should be more stable than a standard rev in reverse flight, so maybe bridle tuning will sort that out. It requires a delicate touch to keep the handles even for hovering upright. I think it's more prone to slipping sideways (like the speed series), since the control surfaces are less likely to move independently.

Mark - have you tried flying it without the middle vertical spar in place?

goestoeleven wrote:Mark - have you tried flying it without the middle vertical spar in place?

Yes, that's the way I originally designed it; it was intended to look like a small section of a large circle. It also didn't have the "bat-like" tail in the middle. Because I added the center upright after I cut away the material at the trailing edge on both sides, I may go back to the original design and use the center upright to control the slop in the trailing edge. Bellied out way too much; trailing edge loose & sloppy; extreme flutter, even at low to medium speed; needed to keep the trailing edge from bellying back too far and it provides an attachment point for the bridling which holds the sail forward.

Will make changes this week and keep everyone posted. I believe the lack of leading edge venting hampers inverted hover and reverse flight.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words:

IMG_0923.JPG (77.34 KiB) Viewed 2852 times

MARK

"...it's a fair wind blowin' warm, out of the south over my shoulder, guess I'll set a course and go." CSN&Y

Hmm . . . I think we are seeing more than one design in that picture. Maybe there are more future kites in store . . . . you are having too much fun. On second thought, stop building kites and use the PC to get your resume done! We need you back at work over the winter! Looks like you can put some kind of CAD software on the skills list (although I can't make out what you are using).

BTW, don't change the kite based on my commentary . . . . those who can't "do" write comments in threads instead of building their own kites. Maybe someday I'll actually sew something.